December 3rd, 2008 - Quitting contacts
The past 10 days with an eye infection afforded me the opportunity to consider life without contacts. I’ve worn them since 9th grade, or about 22 years. I recently heard about a woman who gave up contacts as part of a less plastic life and it got me thinking.
Ever since I switched from annual contacts to disposables in grad school, I’ve felt guilty about the waste. The less chance of an infection, however, always outweighed that. (My cousin once got one that was exacerbated by contacts and it was pretty awful and he spent weeks if not months dealing with it.) But if someone else could do it, maybe I could, too.
Unfortunately, not during winter in Wisconsin. Wait, let me add another caveat: Not during winter in WI if you walk to/from work every day.
It was downright scary walking without glasses. Two major problems–one is the condition of the sidewalks. Was I walking on snow, ice or concrete? Was that a patch of ice up head or just more snow? Having spent quite a few winters with sprained ankles and wrists from falling on ice, this is a huge concern of mine and made the walk very slow and stressful. The other is cars: If a car had headlights on, I could see it over a block away. If not, I couldn’t. And that made me nervous that I might be missing a closer car. And in the middling light of morning or cloudy, snowy days, you can’t guarantee everyone will be smart enough to put on their headlights.
Yesterday morning there was also the barking, running dog who wasn’t leashed. I couldn’t tell where he was between the foggy glasses and the head coverings and that freaked me out. That he was 3 feet away when I finally did see him really scared me. (He didn’t come closer, thank goodness, but I was frozen in place and screaming at his owner until the dog finally left a couple minutes later.) I forgot each morning to walk my normal route, where I’m pretty sure of the two unleashed dogs. One is so old he never runs and has never come near me. The other I cross the street before reaching.
So, could I do it during other seasons? Perhaps. In summer, the other problem is needing sunglasses, but you can get Rx sunglasses, or glasses with attachable shades. (But I ADORE my current glasses, and got lots of compliments on them.) I usually wear sunglasses all year ’round if there’s much sunlight, which means most days.
Well, and the whole reading glasses thing. I’d probably have to get bifocals and I so really don’t want them.
It sure would be cheaper to wear glasses. And overall simpler–my morning/night routines were so much faster!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.